Favourite RPG Series?

April 20th, 2008, 20:43

Maybe we should make a second poll with all of the seriesses (so to say) not listed in THIS poll ?

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by magerette
Yeah, I know visitors can vote in the polls, but the rate of several hundred new votes a day seems a little steep—still, it does seem logical that BG and Fallout be up at the top. Ultima having quintuple the votes of Gothic, M&M, Wizardry and TES seems a bit unusual, though.

I think that the polls look pretty much like I would have expected it. Yes, I don't know quite a few of the games involved: I never tried a Gold Box game, I didn't play Fallout, and I don't know much about the old Ultima titles. But I can see how those titles with low votes got low votes.

Ultima is simply a legend and will always get many votes in polls like this. I guess that some people even vote for the series without knowing the games because they want to be part of the cool kids (typical voter dynamics). Ultima IX is mostly forgotten, because there is still Ultima Online with many fans.

I think the Baldur's Gate games are simply good. I've played both of them numerous times, and I still like them. And a result of 30% of the votes is not that overwhelming.

I know this is all in good fun, but I wish folks wouldn't discount the views of anyone who didn't vote the same as them. Although, I guess the only real reason for a poll like this is to engender discussion and reminiscing, which it's doing very well.

I've played at least one game, usually all, in every one of the series in the poll except Realms of Arkania, and that one I intend to rectify someday. I still chose Ultima for the reasons I explained in my post. That doesn't mean I didn't love the others, I loved all of them.

M&M was a great series (I only played the earlier ones), although when I was playing them was not too long after the Bard's Tale series, which I tended to prefer (the original series, obviously not the remake). The Gold Box games are of the few I have never replayed, but they were great games as well. And they were the first RPGs I played with 256-color graphics, which was a significant jump for me coming from Apple ][e monochrome green/black even if I usually consider graphics a trivial element of RPGs. Fallout would have had a chance but it wasn't nearly as long lived as many of these series, so I personally disqualified it from my voting process despite my love for the two games. Ultima gave me significant pleasure from 1983 to 1993. Eleven years of consistently good RPGing from one series is really something. The post-'93 disappointments of U8 and U9 can't tarnish that history for me.

Newer series get a lesser chance with me, as they were after my childhood and lack the same magic for just that reason. But even amongst them are some of my favorite games.

I don't expect others to agree with me, but I do expect them not to discount my opinion based in false assumptions. Then again, maybe I'm just taking it all too seriously, something I'm prone to do.

Originally Posted by magerette
—still, it does seem logical that BG and Fallout be up at the top. Ultima having quintuple the votes of Gothic, M&M, Wizardry and TES seems a bit unusual, though.

I have to disagree there considering the older timers here on these boards. Heck, Corwin was calling Gygax "that poor boy" at his funeral. Remember the Dot had its own Ultima pages and the series gained a lot of new fans with UO.

Personally, I've barely heard of Realms of Arcania. I think that should be replaced with Bard's Tale.

Yes, I suppose age is definitely a factor. I just thought it weird since some of the other series, like The Elder Scrolls and NWN, have so much more exposure—but I'm pretty ignorant on the old games and I am willing to take your word, Lucky, and Turjan's as well since I'm betting even though you're younger in age, you've both played way more pre-1999 stuff than I ever will.

I kind of glanced back through the polls of the last year and this one has the highest participation figures ever—most of the older ones came in at under 400 votes—for all of you voting without a post, welcome to the boards. I'm kind of dismissing the hacking thing now because the vote spread is fairly even, and it seems to be varying randomly day to day.

I think the let down most of us felt with the last product from Gothic and NWN may have swayed a few votes toward BG as well. The poll is for favourite series and several are still disappointed in those last installments from Gothic and NWN2, not counting recent additions of course.

— Bart and Corwin should just admit that when it gets down to it, I will have the final say.

Well even though everyone says they are disappointed with the last part of the Gothic series (well we were all a bit disappointed) I will still vote for it because it is supposed to be "Your favourite RPG Series" not "The best RPG Series". Also I don't have that much experience in these "best RPGs" so my vote goes to Gothic! Gothic is the game that has change my gaming experience for ever!

The last few Ultimas were just as bad. I suspect someone might have tipped off a UO diehard community out there. I guess that's a difference between forum polls and general polls is that people from outside are able to vote.

I wonder how many people have registered since this poll started? I remember I found the dot by following an attempt to skew the votes for favourite RPG to Fallout from NMA or Duck and Cover.

I voted for the BG series on account of the BG expansion (I though BG was just good, the expansion made it more fun) and BG2 (can you say "epic quest"?).

But that's still not too definitive for me since aside from Fallout, I haven't played the other series completely. Loved Wizardry 8, one of my faves but only played that and Wizardry 3 which didnt leave an impression.

Played the first 3 Ultimas but wow….so long ago. Sadly missed out on 7 which everyone is always raving about.

Played Pool of Radiance and Secret Of The Silver Blades when they came out and had a lot of fun with both but I'm sure replaying those GB games wouldn't be the same today - and didn't play the other games in the series.

1. "Baldur's Gate" was my first game I bought.
2. That was first cRPG I played.
3. I played first BG more times than any game (I completed main story dozens times)
4. Well, just my favorite series
5. This is only one series that at the end of it I… cried because it's the end I was around 13 years old

When looking at the list proposed it made me realize I just don't have any favorite, in fact I don't like series. New fresh context is also a lot more exciting for me and the hypothetic higher risk of a less good game isn't really significant, series don't have persistent qualities anyway.